The Arizona sentinel., 1887-01-22
SOIL AHn CLIMATE.

The >peculiarl y remarkable advan- tagss, in soil and climate, existing with in the limits of Yuma county are at last being recognized by capital and enterprise, and, in but a short time comparatively, 6 vast tract of country which has hitherto been left to lie idle and unproductive will become fruitful in large and valuable variety of az ricultural products. Through all the length of past years this section of country has been looked upon as an arid waste of desert land, waterlsss and doomed to eternal barrenness, while the climate has been by.word, even in the mouths of children, as something dreadful for the imagination to contemplate and horrible to physic- ally cope with. The distance frem Yuma to Hades has been limited, in verbal and printed illustrations, to less than score of miles, and the land has been pictured as owned by close cor poration composed of Indians and coy otes possessing perpetual franchise to the privilege of bowling for water. As the tide of settlers, speculators and homs-seekers poured into Southern California, spread over its vacant lands or purchased from others, and at last found but little room left, the last corners began to speculate upon the limits of the climate which made the soil produce so great variety of cereals and tropical and semi-tropical fruits, and converted Winter into a balmy Spring. At this time was started the Mohawk Canal enterprise, in this county, and the SENTINEL published a series of articles calling attention to the wonderful agricultural advantages possessed by the Mohawk Valley. In those articles attention was drawn to the fact that oranges, lemons. lines, figs, olives, peaches, apricots, bananas and grapes were grown in the town of Yuma, and that all these fruits ripen- ed here much earlier than in any part of California. At once . number of experts and practical agriculturists came out to investigate, and the result was what was to be expected. Settlers ' ..oslMenced to come'in and take up A,3pd along the Gila valley. Within a period of two weeks 23,O00 acres of land in the Mohawk Valley were se- cured in Desert Land, Prsomption and Homestead entries, and the whole val ley is now taken up. Some S20,000 has been expended on the Mohawk Canal, and S60,0O0 are now in the Company's treasury to carry on the work which will be completed by next August. The anal cwill be twenty feet wide on the bottom and over twenty miles long. A large number of men of means have acquired land, and arrangements are now being made to ret out several 40-acre tracts in vineyards and large acreage in oran- ges, lemons and Hines.
 The Antelope Canal is nearly finish ed, and the Hackstt brothers are push ing ahead. The canal of the Hacketts heads some twenty miles above the head of the Mohawk canal and will redeem fully 30,000 acres of as fine land as WAS eyer known. Other smaller canals are being rapidly constructed, and within two years there will be, within Yuma county, over 100000 acres ready for irrigation. Eight miles below Yuma Ingalls, and Gan . dolfo have thriving two-ysar-old or chard set out in oranges, lemons, lines, peaches, apricots, grapes, etc. Alto. gsther the agricultural prospects of this county are having a deserved boom, and it is but the beginning of the commencement.